# Did my first batch of homebrew last night



## keen smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

First timer, so I went with a Brewer's Best kit - the PSA IPA. Its in the primary fermenter now, then I'll transfer to a secondary and dry hop it, then on to bottling (weeks away - I'm so impatient!).

Any of you homebrewers have experience with the Brewers Best kits, or this one in particular? I'd love to hear how they turn out. I'm assuming I haven't ruined my batch yet... ;>


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## E Dogg (Mar 23, 2011)

Awesome! You remind me to go get some stuff cause I want to make a holiday brew.... 

I've used the brewers best American Pale Ale, and as my first brew was blown away. Only cause I really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to brew anything good. Those kits seem to be foolproof I think.


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

Congrats on your first batch of homebrew, be careful its can be a dangerously slippery slope. I'm a huge advocate of not using secondaries so if you are using a bucket as your primary I'd highly recommend dry hopping in it too. Good luck and congrats.


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## E Dogg (Mar 23, 2011)

Beer Alchemist said:


> Congrats on your first batch of homebrew, be careful its can be a dangerously slippery slope. I'm a huge advocate of not using secondaries so if you are using a bucket as your primary I'd highly recommend dry hopping in it too. Good luck and congrats.


Sorry to hijack.... but why no secondaries? Doesn't it help get rid of some settlement crap? I'm new to homebrewing as well and thought doing a secondary fermentation bucket is better. Please explain.


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

Brewing at home is a lot of fun must get back into it again!


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## beercritic (Feb 13, 2011)

Used to use the BB with mixed results. 
Any Interest In the hobby? Join a brew club.

Big Fun...and should you need a judge, both the wife and I are receptive.


Joe


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## Scott W. (Jul 10, 2008)

I would PM Neal (Nealw6971) and ask him about homebrewing, he is a talented guy with lots of info.


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## nealw6971 (Jul 8, 2011)

E Dogg said:


> Sorry to hijack.... but why no secondaries? Doesn't it help get rid of some settlement crap? I'm new to homebrewing as well and thought doing a secondary fermentation bucket is better. Please explain.


Secondaries can be used for settling and for "aging", but in most cases they aren't really necessary. My whole theory is to disturb the beer as little as possible once you've pitched your yeast. However, I do put heavier beers, (Imperial styles, Barley Wines, etc) into secondary just to get them off the yeast cake because they shouldn't sit for probably more than 6-weeks (although I've let some of mine go for a couple months. LOL).

Anyway, congrats on your first brew brother! Enjoy this slope as well (I just brewed an Imp Stout today. Hopefully it will be a tasty brew. I'll know in 4-months.


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## keen smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

Hm, thanks for the advice guys. I went ahead and transferred my IPA to a carboy since I had it and wanted to practice racking and hydrometer reads etc. AND because that now frees up my primary, which means I can brew again and put something in there if I want to... :> Hm, an English Pale or Bitter perhaps...

Anywho, here's a quick cell phone pic of the carboy a day after transferring.

Cell pic is a bit dark but its definitely not clear anyway


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## hxcmassacre (Jun 8, 2008)

Looks good! Have you bottled yet?


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

nealw6971 said:


> Secondaries can be used for settling and for "aging", but in most cases they aren't really necessary. My whole theory is to disturb the beer as little as possible once you've pitched your yeast. However, I do put heavier beers, (Imperial styles, Barley Wines, etc) into secondary just to get them off the yeast cake because they shouldn't sit for probably more than 6-weeks (although I've let some of mine go for a couple months. LOL).
> 
> Anyway, congrats on your first brew brother! Enjoy this slope as well (I just brewed an Imp Stout today. Hopefully it will be a tasty brew. I'll know in 4-months.


Yes exactly. Long term aging and wild brews are the two big reasons. Plenty of folks who normally don't secondary will for dry hopping but I won't even do that. The background is that people used to be scared of yeast autolysis. But experience has shown that isn't an issue for homebrewers as there is not enough osmotic pressure on the yeast to cause autolysis due to the small amount of hydraulic pressure. Commercial brewing is a different creature as there us enough pressure to kill the yeast in much shorter time. That said, two or three months on the yeast for homebrewing won't hurt a thing and will help clean up fermentation byproducts. I personally always leave a beer on the yeast for a month in most instances as I find more than that doesn't give me appreciably better quality.


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## keen smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

Haven't bottled yet, aiming for next weekend on the weekend after. I did brew another batch this weekend though and its burping away in my primary now too. ;>


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

Addictive isn't it. Good that you got going on round two right away. Nothing worse than finishing a batch and having nothing to replace it with.


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## keen smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

Indeed!


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## nickpgoodman (Jul 18, 2011)

Welcome to the addiction 

I've been brewing about 6 years now. Kits are a great way to start. After enough brews it's just like cooking, figuring out a recipe will be 2nd nature.

I won't be able to brew for a few more weeks myself, I have about 30 gallons of beer, plus 5 gallons of cider that have to be kegged this weekend though.

I'm also a big advocate of no secondary, straight from primary to bottling bucket and bottle or straight from primary to keg. Works great.


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

How'd bottling go?


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## keen smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

Bottling went fine, thanks for asking. It took a lot longer than I thought to clean and sanitize everything, but the first time I brewed took a lot longer than the 2nd, so I imagine getting some experience will make it much easier. But the actual bottling process itself was painless and my GF even helped me out and had fun. I put one in the fridge tonight to give it a 1-week checkup. Next weekend I'll do a real tasting and try to take some pics in the glass :>


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## beercritic (Feb 13, 2011)

Single best improvement a "noob" brewer can make is to pitch wet yeast instead of the dry packets that come with the kits. Wyeast and WhiteLabs both stock an amazing variety of yeasts, and have web sites. Make sure to match the yeast to the beer style (trivial to do). Don't mail-order wet yeast during the hotter months.

What kind of IPA is PSA?



Joe.
.
.
.


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2011)

I don't know why I never thought of doing this before. My wife has been asking what I want for Christmas, I now know what to tell her!


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## keen smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

Two weeks in the bottle, and huzzah:










pretty tasty stuff, I'm hooked!


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## nickpgoodman (Jul 18, 2011)

beercritic said:


> Single best improvement a "noob" brewer can make is to pitch wet yeast instead of the dry packets that come with the kits. Wyeast and WhiteLabs both stock an amazing variety of yeasts, and have web sites. Make sure to match the yeast to the beer style (trivial to do). Don't mail-order wet yeast during the hotter months.
> 
> What kind of IPA is PSA?
> 
> ...


There are some absolutely great dry yeasts now actually. I am a huge fan of S-04, S-05 and Nottingham yeasts. There are even some decent lager yeasts and belgian yeasts produced by Fermentis, Danstar and one other name I can't think of right now. I will use Dry Yeast over liquid everytime if the style I am brewing works with it. If I need a Saison yeast or something else different then I'll go with Wyeast or White Labs, otherwise it's dry all the way. Dry yeast isn't the same beast it was 10 years ago when all we had was Muntons or something generic like that. On top of that with dry yeast you don't need to do a starter, and if you need to pitch more it's cheap enough to just pitch two packets.


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

Good job, looking good. Just go easy on it until it's been in the bottle for 5 weeks as it takes that long for the carving to fully infuse. I'd guess your tasting seemed a little under carbed even though it had a good head as a result.


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

nealw6971 said:


> Secondaries can be used for settling and for "aging", but in most cases they aren't really necessary. My whole theory is to disturb the beer as little as possible once you've pitched your yeast. However, I do put heavier beers, (Imperial styles, Barley Wines, etc) into secondary just to get them off the yeast cake because they shouldn't sit for probably more than 6-weeks (although I've let some of mine go for a couple months. LOL).
> 
> Anyway, congrats on your first brew brother! Enjoy this slope as well (I just brewed an Imp Stout today. Hopefully it will be a tasty brew. I'll know in 4-months.





Beer Alchemist said:


> Yes exactly. Long term aging and wild brews are the two big reasons. Plenty of folks who normally don't secondary will for dry hopping but I won't even do that. The background is that people used to be scared of yeast autolysis. But experience has shown that isn't an issue for homebrewers as there is not enough osmotic pressure on the yeast to cause autolysis due to the small amount of hydraulic pressure. Commercial brewing is a different creature as there us enough pressure to kill the yeast in much shorter time. That said, two or three months on the yeast for homebrewing won't hurt a thing and will help clean up fermentation byproducts. I personally always leave a beer on the yeast for a month in most instances as I find more than that doesn't give me appreciably better quality.


+1 for these guys! I completely agree. In addition to these fellers pointing out that it's needless, it also puts your brew at greater risk of infection. When home brewing, less is definitely more. Keep it simple.


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## primetime76 (Feb 8, 2011)

jfhall on here (doesn't post much) is also a HUGE home brewer (so much so that we are seriously considering opening our own brew pub and having him brew)...tons of information from him as well.


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

All the luck to you if you can open a brewpub successfully. When folks say there is too much regulation that hinders business, I think starting your own brewery is the poster child for this claim.


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## Qball (Oct 5, 2009)

I am currently in the middle of building this setup...

The Electric Brewery


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

nickpgoodman said:


> There are some absolutely great dry yeasts now actually. I am a huge fan of S-04, S-05 and Nottingham yeasts. There are even some decent lager yeasts and belgian yeasts produced by Fermentis, Danstar and one other name I can't think of right now. I will use Dry Yeast over liquid everytime if the style I am brewing works with it. If I need a Saison yeast or something else different then I'll go with Wyeast or White Labs, otherwise it's dry all the way. Dry yeast isn't the same beast it was 10 years ago when all we had was Muntons or something generic like that. On top of that with dry yeast you don't need to do a starter, and if you need to pitch more it's cheap enough to just pitch two packets.


I'd generally agree with this, although with safal getting as expensive as it is now I still go to liquid yeast. Now if 3711 came in dry yeast I might fully convert. As to the post that started this topic and likely a big help for the OP I'll put down what I think are the biggest equipment upgrades beyond your basic kit:

Wort chiller
Fermentation temp control
Kettle large enough to allow full wort boils
Stir plate
Refractometer
Kegging equipment


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## Beer Alchemist (Aug 17, 2011)

Qball said:


> I am currently in the middle of building this setup...
> 
> The Electric Brewery


Oh yes yes yes. I have followed your thread on HBT. Mucho jealous.


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